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NEWARK – There were many situations in his first five years as Delaware basketball coach that Monte Ross could have considered the low point of his eight-season tenure.

The Blue Hens didn't have a winning record in that stretch, and twice finished last in the Colonial Athletic Association.

But it actually came in the sixth season, during a loss at Drexel, when Ross believed the Hens were poised to turn the corner but continued to struggle.

"I let a little doubt creep in right there," Ross said this week, referring to the 71-55 defeat on Jan. 28, 2012. "There must be something I'm doing wrong.

"Then, we took off."

The Hens often have soared since, beginning with the eight-game win streak that followed that doubt-inducing defeat in Philadelphia.

They are 50-25 overall since, including 34-7 in the CAA, highlighted by the 2013-14 regular-season championship. It is Delaware's first in 13 years in the league.

On Thursday night in Baltimore, Ross was a landslide winner of the CAA Coach of the Year award, handed out at the banquet preceding this weekend's conference tournament.

"Monte did a tremendous job with his club this year," UNCW coach Buzz Peterson said. "They deserved to finish in first."

Also honored were senior guards Devon Saddler and Davon Usher as first-team All-CAA selections and senior forward Carl Baptiste as an All-CAA third-team choice. Usher also made the All-Defensive team, and junior guard Kyle Anderson was an All-Academic selection.

Delaware (22-9) is the No. 1 seed and will play at noon Saturday against the winner of Friday's 7 p.m. game between No. 8 Hofstra and No. 9 UNCW, both 9-22. The Hens are bidding for their first NCAA Tournament berth since 1999.

It's a remarkable turnaround for a program that endured seven straight losing seasons before 2011-12, never finishing higher than fifth in the CAA until last year, and for a coach who was frequently on the hot seat.

"The thing that's gratifying for me right now is, we've been able to keep this thing going," said Ross, referring to improving off last year's 19-win season despite graduating all-time leading UD rebounder and shot blocker Jamelle Hagins.

"If I allow myself to peek into a crystal ball, we're poised to keep this thing going some more, which is important. We don't want to be lightning in a bottle, which I don't think we have been, because we've done it over a number of years."

Ross is just the second UD coach to win an outright league coach of the year award. Steven Steinwedel was North Atlantic Conference coach of the year in 1992. Ron Rainey (1985/East Coast Conference) and Mike Brey (1998/America East) were co-coach of the year.

UD players credit Ross for his even temperament and letting them play a free-flowing style.

"He's brought the program from absolutely nothing," Baptiste said. "To bring us to here now, he deserves a lot of respect for that.

"Personally, I love him. He saved my career," added Baptiste, who transferred to Delaware after two years at St. Joseph's.

Usher, a transfer this year from Mississippi Valley State, echoed Baptiste, saying: "I wish I played for him for four years, because he's a great person and a good listener."

Ross, then an assistant at St. Joseph's, was hired after David Henderson's dismissal following the 2005-06 season. When Delaware showed signs of rapid improvement in his second year, starting 5-0 in the CAA and finishing 14-17 overall, Ross was given a contract extension through 2014-15.

But it took longer than expected to get the program turned around, giving Ross a better appreciation for the situation in which he finds himself.

"We have been through two presidents and three athletic directors [since his hiring]," Ross said. "In this day and age of college athletics, you don't survive that. It is what it is.

"I can't say enough for Dr. [David] Roselle and Edgar [Johnson] giving me an opportunity," Ross added of the former UD president and athletic director, "and [president] Pat Harker and [executive vice president] Scott Douglass giving me time. I remember Scott Douglass said 'Look, we want you to build this thing and we're going to give you time because we want you to build it the right way and build something that's sustainable, not just a quick fix.' And [athletic directors] Bernard Muir and Eric Ziady bought into that vision. In this day and age of instant gratification, you don't get that."

Ross and Ziady said they have not discussed a contract extension, that such matters can wait until after the season.

During the height of Delaware's struggles – the injury-plagued 7-24 2009-10 season – Ross cited the example of Stony Brook coach Steve Pikiell in expressing his faith in Delaware's future. Pikiell endured three 20-loss seasons before turning Stony Brook into a program that now has won three of the last four America East regular-season titles and had four 20-win seasons.

More recently, Ross drew a parallel with Jim Ferry, who had only one winning record in his first eight years at LIU-Brooklyn before guiding the Blackbirds to a pair of NCAA berths and then being hired at Duquesne.

Now the building process at Delaware has resulted in a solid foundation and one regular-season title.

"This is what I signed up for," Ross, 112-140 as UD coach, said of the trials and tribulations that come with trying to rebuild a program. "I don't know if my family [wife, Michelle, and children Justin and Lauren] fully grasped what they were getting into. So I'm really happy to get to do this for them."

Ross says he's a better coach now than he was several years ago. But he's also been able to recruit better players, beginning with Saddler, now UD's all-time leading scorer and the one Ross credits with igniting Delaware's turnaround.

His patience has paid off and his faith has been rewarded, even though, after that 2012 loss at Drexel, Ross briefly wondered.

"I had to learn different things during this process, and that's one of the things that I learned during that season," Ross said. "You just have to stay with it. Trust your instincts and keep doing what you think will help you to be good, and that's what we kept doing.